Marte Johnslien, NO

Marte Johnslien (b. 1977) is an artist working with ceramic sculpture, installation, and artist’s books.

She is an Associate Professor of Ceramic Art at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts, Department of Art and Craft, and holds a doctoral degree in artistic research from the same department (2020).

In the artistic research project TiO₂: The Materiality of White, which she leads at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts, Johnslien investigates how the pigment titanium white originates in Sokndal, Rogaland, where the mineral ilmenite is mined, before being sent to Fredrikstad to be processed into titanium dioxide (TiO₂). She documents the process, sheds light on the environmental impact of this production and explores how the substance has become embedded in everyday products such as cosmetics, toothpaste, and white surfaces. This work has led to a large-scale interdisciplinary research project between the Oslo National Academy of the Arts and the University of Bergen, in collaboration with art historian Ingrid Halland, who leads the sister project TiO₂: How Norway Made the World Whiter.

It has also led the artist down new paths in her materially-conceptual practice. In recent years, she has focused on tracing historical connections between mining industries, visual culture, and alchemy. Her artistic investigations involve chemical experimentation with TiO₂ in ceramic processes, archival research, and fieldwork conducted with student participants in the project at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts. Johnslien describes this as a practice of bringing the immaterial colour white back to its earthly origin, in an attempt to deconstruct the colour white as a symbol of purity, power, and progress.